}} THE IMMIGRANT MAOMETTO TO DANTE by Tabish Khair |

Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










THE IMMIGRANT MAOMETTO TO DANTE by Tabish Khair

I have slipped into the tenth Bolgia of Malebolge,
Closer to the ultimate circle. Much has happened
Since you last walked by. The attendant devil
Who was clawing me into two (like a cask
Whose staves are ripped apart, you had written)
Has been promoted to a higher circle. Now he whips
The suicidal and the merely blasphemous. I
Have not heard from my family since I moved
To this penultimate pitch of darkness. Even Ali
Was left behind that time, split like me, defined.

Time and distance make impossible the surface
Of things with their butterfly meanings and budding
Relationships. Sunlight’s a metaphor in this circle
Of memory where Judas in fact, Brutus poetry.

 

 

← Tabish Khair